1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to crutches and more specifically to leg support crutches designed to permit ambulatory movement by a patient recuperating from an injured foot or lower leg.
2. Description of Related Art
A patient after injuring a foot or lower leg, commonly uses a pair of crutches to support himself or herself when recuperating. The crutches aid the patient when walking by supporting a portion of the patient's body weight.
Each crutch conventionally includes a pair of legs attached to an upper cross bar or crutch head. The legs depend downwardly from the crutch head towards a lower end. The crutch also includes a hand grip attached to the legs and positioned between the crutch head and the lower end, about two-thirds up the length of the crutch from the lower end.
The patient uses the crutch by placing the crutch head under his or her arm in the axilla (i.e., armpit) and grasping the hand grip. The patient generally supports his or her weight by the combination of grasping the hand grip and resting on the crutch head. Unfortunately, extended use of conventional crutches generally results in some discomfort to the axillae and lateral sides of the rib cage, and may result in nerve injury.
To overcome the disadvantage of conventional crutches, there have been efforts to develop a single support crutch that more directly supports the user's leg without the need to grip the crutch with one's hands or bear upon the crutch at or about the axillae and rib cage. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,575,299, 5,300,595 and 5,178,595 disclose examples of such prior single support crutches. In essence, each of these single support crutches removes stress from the user's axillae and rib cage and transfers that stress to the user's knee and thigh. None of the single support crutches to date, however, have been able (i) to satisfactorily minimize the stresses on a user's knee, (ii) to more evenly distribute the forces that bear upon the user's thigh during use, and (iii) to provide the stability required for full ambulatory movement of the user.